


by my side

by sanguinedawns



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, just ramblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 20:33:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16961010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanguinedawns/pseuds/sanguinedawns
Summary: naruto watches sasuke struggle to bargain down to a reasonable price. he sees the defeat in his shoulders as he buys the share of produce to bring back to the compound for him and friends’ he’s made since leaving. and he wondersare you happy now?





	by my side

**Author's Note:**

> ok i promise i'll write the grad school au chapter like next. but i was listening to this ending and it inspired this. sorry it's not beta'd and probs shitty. enjoy.
> 
> ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl8nHW2-gzs

sometimes you think life is fated to run it’s course as it’s intended. that all that happens is for a reason, but then the hurt piles on and the tragedies build up and making one wonder when did pinches start feeling like punches. they say _you’re_ _a hero_ now as if the medal of honor wipes away years of pain. but then kids that reflect familiar innocent eyes from not so long ago come bearing gifts, pen and paper clutched to their chests with requests on their tongues and it’s easy to smile and carve one’s name in ink on starchy paper. it's easy to forget it _all_.

 

he doesn’t cross the threshold to the city center, remains meandering outside -- closer to the walls than the bustling crowds, and naruto feels a prick of guilt for just watching. the struggle in his eyes is barely perceptible, his head down, his words short. _i can see you,_ naruto thinks.

 

\--

 

they don’t talk around others. others being people naruto considers friends -- more actually: family. because it’s hard to explain the thread that weaves him and sasuke, red string of fate or whatever you’d call it. souls bound together because someone decided he’ll be the half to make him whole. it’s fucked, yknow? to think a person is bound by seals of fate for something naruto didn’t even ask for. he’d be more upset if he didnt keep memories of being seven and being kicked into the ground and wiping tears on his way home to a lonely apartment, of seeing a boy sitting at the pier with eyes as sad as his own, and smiling to said boy. he thinks the smile is returned, he cant remember because he always ran too fast.

 

it’s less fucked knowing about said fate when he remembers the time he was twelve with splinters pressed into his palm as he climbed trees, haphazardly trying to get to the top, falling and finding an extended hand pulling him back up to the ground. sasuke smiled then, a slight grin that did reach his eyes, and naruto had thought _i like this sight_.

 

so to him life dealt a pretty shitty hand. he lost his parents which wasn’t enough because the town took it upon themselves to remind him everyday he’s just a vessel, but times have changed and he’s glorified onto posters around konoha walls. he’s made into memrobillia and turned into a celebrity. but that’s not it is it? instead it’s the boy tied to him thru a tightly knitted string, the boy with clipped words, and blank eyes.

 

naruto watches sasuke struggle to bargain down to a reasonable price. he sees the defeat in his shoulders as he buys the share of produce to bring back to the compound for him and friends’ he’s made since leaving. and he wonders _are you happy now?_

 

\--

naruto makes his way thru the thinning crowd towards the compound located at the outskirts of the city. it was created after the attack by kurama years ago to safeguard the village, normal folks from clan members, and only _now_ he realizes it’s just fancy gibberish for the outright division of communities. _you’re different you deserve to be treated as such_ . he chuckles to himself because isn’t that just sad how he’s lived all his life inside city walls and yet felt like he’d, too, been tossed to the outskirts to fend for himself. but it’s okay now cause as they say _you’re a hero, naruto-kun_.

 

it’s suigestu who answers the door with a lazy drawl to his speech, his hair unkempt and his shirt misplaced. naruto wonders if taka is just allergic to fabric or some cause most of them parade around with no clothes. karin greets him next she’s sprawled on the couch with a leg hitched over the arm and another hanging off the edge. she’s wearing a deep red sports bra and shorts and reading scrolls that say _chakra infusions_. sakura had said she’d asked about joining the medic unit but the council is wary of having ex-cons treating patients. loyalty supersedes skill and konoha and all it’s soldiers know taka is loyal to only one.

 

“he’s in his room. bad mood, i think, his chakra was everywhere,” she comments with a wave of her hand and he ducks down the hallway leading to sasuke’s room.

 

the house stands on around an acre of land, the only building smack dab in the middle, with about three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. it’s bigger than anywhere naruto has lived -- _yet_ as he’s meant to be awarded a better apartment in the upper district. he tries not to think of how undeserving he is of it.

 

the door to sasuke’s room is left ajar, and naruto _knows_ sasuke knows he’s here. so forgoing knocking he steps in, taking off his shoes at the door, and whispering a slight, “ _tadaima*_ ”

 

sasuke’s back is towards the door, his body angled towards the window next to his bed. just as easily naruto had entered he slips next to him, the cotton sheet folding over him and prickling his skin with goosebumps from its coolness. he tucks his forehead into the nape of sasuke’s neck and draws his arm around his waist to reach for his hand, his good arm, and melds their fingers together.

 

“hey,” he breathes against his skin, and the scent that welcomes him is familiar, “you okay?”

 

sasuke doesn’t respond but squeezes naruto’s palm. silence washes over them and naruto breaks it not because it’s uncomfortable but because he’s here and he wants to hear him. he mumbles, “think kakashi has found the perfect guinea pig in me. he keeps testing all his inane diplomatic ideas on me and keeps using _me_ to get work done around the office. won’t even raise my salary.”

 

sasuke shifts slightly to fit better into naruto’s chest and says, voice gruff from not using, “hm, looks like you just need to quit.”

 

“if i do who’ll pay for all our expensive _dates_ ,” naruto grumbles. it’s what he’d say if their situation were normal, if he could woo and dine the boy pressed into him, “someone has to keep the romance alive.”

 

sasuke giggles, it’s soft and barely there but it melts naruto’s insides as he feels fingers tighten around his own, “ _usuratonkachi_.”

 

the pain from years of hurt dulls at that, every so often he hears that laugh and thinks about running away when he was seven. of being too shy to make friends, and too afraid to understand bonds. he probably still doesn’t entirely get them. and the village calls him _a hero_ , calls him _the savior_ , and they don’t get it he’s just the same seven-year-old wishing for a home, for a family, for friends. he’s still the vessel to kuruma, the beast they still sneer at when mentioned. and he’d thought something is better than nothing.

 

but then, right now, he has everything. whether to thank fate or luck or _whatever._ right now he’s naruto uzumaki as he lays on the soft futon with his back pressed to a boy, _the_ boy, and it’s ok. maybe life isn’t all too bad. as long _he’s_ by his side.

**Author's Note:**

> naruto says plz comment, kudos and the works !
> 
> *tadaima = im home


End file.
